j_cuevas713

33 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Agreed, a door on the Westheimer side would have been good.  But they may not have followed the UKMD sidewalk design for Westheimer because it sucks.  A 5-foot-wide sidewalk (and I presume 2222 Westheimer's are 6-feet wide) with pedestrian buffer is better urban/pedestrian design than a 5- or 6-foot wide sidewalk with trees and light poles plopped in the middle of it. I've never understood why they did Westheimer sidewalks the way they did.

Ehh we can agree to disagree on that 

5 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Lee should check his legal documents.  ;-)  2222 Westheimer is not in the district.  Technically, I think we may both be right.  The district ends at the northern right-of-way line of Westheimer Road, but the property itself is not in the district.

If we're strictly talking about the property line, sure, but the ROW shouldn't change. If anything the property should align itself with the current ROW design, not revert to the design standards just because it new construction. That's really my only point. If ANYTHING, what should happen is the business should increase the pedestrian realm and add a door on the Westheimer side instead of damn near 10 feet of plants. 

9 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

The legal description from the formation of the district, and the official maps in the various amendments and legal documents show that the subject property (2222 Westheimer) is not part of the UKMD. That's probably why UKMD didn't do to these sidewalks what they did to the other sidewalks when this section of Westheimer was rebuilt.  https://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/tirzdocs/19/boundary2015.pdf

https://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/tirzdocs/19/boundary2015.pdf

https://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/tirzdocs/19/boundary2015.pdf

https://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/tirzdocs/19/creation.pdf

Dude I'm not sure what you're trying to prove but I've already talked to Lee Cisneros who is the head of the capital improvement projects for the neighborhood and it's definitely part of UKMD. It was one of the main capital improvement projects for the neighborhood. Not sure why you're showing me an old map from 2015. The UK maintenance team manages that whole stretch of Westheimer along with any signage for the district. All you have to do is look at the signs that say Upper Kirby.

9 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Per the map on their website, the UKMD only includes the south side of Westheimer.

Trust me it is, I live here. That website is never updated and they also never let the neighborhood know when they have meetings. When they do they're all scheduled on Mondays at Noon. UKMD literally rebuilt this entire section of Westheimer just a little over 10 years ago so it's in their maintenance borders. 

17 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Hmmm... so, what is it that you are going to report to Public Works?  FWIW. I don't think this property is in the UKMD.

It is, I walk by it daily after grabbing coffee at DUO. I'm not a fan of the "pedestrian buffer.' I think all it does is prevents drivers from being able to see pedestrians. I'm all for trees with grates, how UK has them currently. I think both the planning dept and public works need to be aware of this design flaw. It looks good on paper but it's not practical. Planters make more sense then a bunch of mulch. 

6 minutes ago, emmanume said:

I heard this will be an Ace Hotel

😮

5 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

What sidewalk did they take away?

The sidewalk was wider before. Not sure why the width changed but I'm assuming it's to meet the design requirements for new construction. I measured the sidewalk yesterday and almost 2 feet are gone in exchange for the buffer. I'm not sure why the ROW is part of the design when UKMD already set the design for the neighborhood. 

They took sidewalk away smh I def gotta report this to Public Works. 

I hate Cle Group. They're just a bunch of dbags who want to make a quick buck. What they've done to the old Christian Science Church is ridiculous. And all they seem to attract are wannabe gangsters in 2023 Camaros 

Welp that's one eyesore gone along 59

I know some people in the neighborhood don't like this project but these types of developments are what the city of Houston uses to incentivize further improvements for the area such as better sidewalks, streets, etc. That mentality may change when Prob B goes into full effect and the city isn't having to convince some guy in Sugar Land that we need better infrastructure. 

On 12/2/2023 at 2:19 PM, hindesky said:

West side.

 

North side.

 

The Charles.

Wow this is what great urbanism looks like. I can definitely see everything surrounding downtown becoming similar to Seattle over the next few years if developers continue to build this way. 

I'm not holding my breath on this one. I'm hoping for no setback but this architecture firm doesn't even have a working website 

It looks like a clubhouse you rent at a garden style apartment complex built in 2005

Great news for the neighborhood. I lived 2 or 3 blocks from here for about 2 years. I'm hoping for many more positive changes in the neighborhood. I think the biggest sign will be when those apartments and that ugly shopping center change hands and get redeveloped. That section of the Northside bounded by 610, W Cavalcade, and Airline is a strange mess but it's coming together. 

I mean they tried building a successful food hall by depending on car traffic to supplement the demand. That just doesn't work 

There is literally a garage down the street. So many damn parking garages downtown. 

I think they may be doing better than they anticipated. A hotel would take the space to an entirely new level

On 12/13/2023 at 5:43 PM, 004n063 said:

He is a HAIFer. I met him on a Coffee + Bikes ride a while back and we talked about it.

That's my boy Emmanuel. And my buddy Lucio runs that ride.

They changed their tone real quick. The traffic data may not support the changes but there are reasons behind that. First, Houston Ave has never had high foot traffic for anything. Second, the road design is way to wide. Maybe 60 years ago it made sense but today it doesn't. And the city is simply going back and taking back space it wants to use for better things in the neighborhood. 

14 hours ago, TacoDog said:

I'm surprised they ket the door frame red.

It's Christmas time

On 12/5/2023 at 10:19 AM, Texasota said:

I think Common Bond clearly overexpanded, but this one is a shame because this location was unique. I really think if they moved to better hours/open on the weekends they could have done better. 

The programming by Understory could be better to attract more people

Yeah I

On 12/3/2023 at 2:50 PM, editor said:

You're right — downtown is worse today than it was six months ago.  But it's better than it was when I first moved downtown in 1999.  

I think the problem is three-fold:

1. There are fewer "normal" people downtown (see #2).  When there's lots of regular people around, the drug addicts and vagrants don't stand out as much.  But that's true in pretty much every city I've re-visited in the last five years.  Perhaps if there was more for regular people to do downtown, then people would come out of their apartments in the sky and give the neighborhood a more vibrant feel.  And there are more and more opportunities to do so, like the occasional Discovery Green night market, and the innumerable events at Market Square Park.  But it has to happen all over downtown, and not just in two locations.  
2. There's a lot of street drugs available downtown, especially in the area of Rusk and Main.  When I first moved downtown again a few years ago, I was approached a couple of times by dealers who look exactly like the stereotype you'd expect from watching TV crime dramas.  But lately I've seen a pair of 20-something preppy-looking white kids dealing.  They walk the streets in a regular pattern.  One has a backpack, and the other approaches druggies one at a time asking if they need a refill, or a top-up, or whatever they called it.  They act very corporate.  It's weird.
3. Metro seems to have reduced its policing of the trains.  There are often fare inspectors standing on the platforms, but they hardly ever get on the trains anymore, I suspect because so many of the fare machines are broken and they can't legitimately write a ticket to someone who got on at a stop with a broken machine.  Just yesterday I had a fare inspector stop me from scanning my Q card because the machine was broken, and he told me to just get on like everyone else.  And I don't think I've seen an actual Metro police officer on a train in over a year.   This past Friday a guy was having a seizure in the first car of the train, and someone pushed the emergency button.  When the train driver opened his door and asked what was going on, someone told him not to worry about it, the guy was just overdosing.  So the driver shrugged his shoulders and went back to driving the train.  The train shouldn't have moved until an ambulance arrived.  Maybe the driver called for one to meet him up ahead somewhere, but I stayed on the train for seven more stops, and no help arrived for the guy writhing on the floor just a dozen feet from the train driver.

 

 

Yeah Metro is a joke. While I'm excited about some of the transit projects in the future, the mismanagement of the agency time and time again is beyond absurd at this point. I always stay alert on the train. 

There has to be mold at this point right? It just seems smarter to start over

Yeah this isn't good news. I hope they fill the spot soon.